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Thousands march in Brazil in the first major UN climate protest in years
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Thousands march in Brazil in the first major UN climate protest in years

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Tens of thousands of people crowded the streets of the Amazon city hosting COP30 talks on Saturday, dancing to booming loudspeakers in the first large-scale protest at a UN climate summit in years.
As the first week of climate negotiations drew to a close and countries were at an impasse, indigenous peoples and activists sang, chanted and rolled a giant beach ball from the earth through Belem under a blazing sun.
Others held a mock funeral procession for fossil fuels, dressed in black and pretending to be grieving widows as they carried three coffins with the words “coal,” “oil” and “gas.”

“We are here to try to apply pressure so that countries keep their promises and we do not accept regression,” Txai Surui, a prominent 28-year-old indigenous leader, told Agence France-Presse.

It was the first major protest outside the annual climate talks since COP26 in Glasgow four years ago, as the last three meetings were held in locations with little tolerance for demonstrations – Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan.
The rally in Belem, dubbed the Great People’s March by organizers, comes midway through difficult negotiations and follows two indigenous-led protests who disrupted proceedings earlier this week.

‘Forest massacre’

“Today we are witnessing a massacre as our forest is destroyed,” Benedito Huni Kuin, a 50-year-old member of the Huni Kuin indigenous group from western Brazil, told AFP.
“We want to make our voices heard from the Amazon region and demand results,” he said. “We need more indigenous representatives at the COP to defend our rights.”
Tyrone Scott, a 34-year-old Briton from the anti-poverty group War on Want, said it was an “indigenous, movement-led, people-powered march”.

“It’s just really exciting and kind of a nice antidote to the dullness and sterility of the inside of the COP,” Scott said.

Their demands include “reparations” for the damage caused by companies and governments, especially to marginalized communities.
A giant Palestinian flag and “free Palestine” banners appeared throughout the crowd.
One protester on stilts, dressed as a greedy Uncle Sam, denounced “imperialism”, while other artworks focused on Donald Trump, the US president who denigrates climate science and favors fossil fuels.

“Here we are talking about agroecology, feminism, we are talking about how unions defend life and better employment,” 33-year-old Giovani Del Prete told AFP.

“These are the policies we must adopt to defeat the climate crisis.”
After marching 4.5 kilometers through the city, the demonstration stopped a few blocks away from the COP30 venue, where authorities had deployed soldiers to protect the site.

Ultimately, the crowd – 50,000 people according to organizers – dispersed peacefully.

On Tuesday, indigenous protesters entered the Parque da Cidade – the COP30 complex built on the site of a former airport – clashing with security personnel, some of whom suffered minor injuries.

Then on Friday, dozens of indigenous protesters blocked the entrance for about two hours to highlight their struggle in the Amazon, prompting high-level interventions to defuse the situation.

High stakes

Inside the chamber, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago admitted that the first grueling week of negotiations had failed to achieve a breakthrough, and urged diplomats not to run out the clock with time-wasting maneuvers.
“The stakes are too high to let procedural tactics or stalled discussions stand in the way of progress,” he said.
He promised to publish a “note” on Sunday summarizing the parties’ positions – a kind of to-do list for ministers who will take over negotiations on Monday.

Countries are calling the shots on trade measures and weak climate targets, while a showdown looms over demands that rich countries triple the financing they provide to poor states to adapt to a warming world.

Countries including Denmark, Britain and Kenya are also rallying support for Brazil’s proposal to agree on a ‘roadmap’ for advancing the phase-out of fossil fuels.
“We would like to support them on that roadmap… We would like to see an outcome of that,” said British climate secretary Katie White, adding that such a proposal would need the support of “the vast majority of countries”.
Such efforts are strongly opposed by Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries, with some parties telling AFP they had strong doubts the proposal would be approved by consensus at COP30.

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